Untitled Number 2


Laying on a mat on a dirty floor in a broken building
in the shadows of glittering hotels
filled with the unattainable wealthy too afraid
to venture beyond the foyer until a warmed up hack waits
to whisk them away to another safe doorway.

Laying on a mat with all my possessions in a bag
doing double duty as a pillow
tired back-aching from stacking five tons of green beans
so the crackhead junkies and gin drunks who keep me awake
will have something to eat on easter sunday.

On the sidewalk a rock pimp sleeps until evening then
collects the daily wages of a hundred crackheads
lifting nothing heavier than his overcoat all day
to make a better wage than the wetback laborer across the street
where they won't hire crackhead junkies or rock pimps...
or me because I live among them.

Daily I walk into the festering remains of
five hundred black men hell-bent on destroying
the final act of their ruined lives as they smoke crack
and drink gin and buy cigarettes for a quarter apiece
because if any one of them did work today
his paycheck is spent before he gets into the building
so he has to sell the clothes that he got for free for fifty cents
which will get him two smokes
then he bums for "shorts" the rest of the night
and I walk into this valley of death unafraid
for God is on my shoulder and a sharp blade is my side
and I pay for the eyes to watch my back
but still I never sleep all night through.

Daily the churches come in to feed and after getting
bum-rushed by five hundred glazed over gin drinking crackheads
it's a wonder they overcome the fear set upon them
by such an experience and ever come back again,
but they only bring their daughters once,
and the meal they serve certainly does not conform to
the FDA food triangle
and it's usually cold and unseasoned -- manna --
they come to deliver Jesus Christ and sometimes a bible and
when they start getting that faith based money that Dubya has
promised the food will still be cold and unseasoned but
I guarantee new bibles for all -- Hallelujah!!




Copyright © 2001